Originally Posted 11/2/05
INTRODUCTION
Prior to becoming an attorney in what now seems like a previous life I was an entrepreneur. After leaving my first engineering job out of college, I started the Denver Bicycle Design Center, Inc., which designed, manufactured and produced high end mountain bicycle components. These products, namely a ultralight aluminum/graphite/epoxy handlebar and stem, were sold under the Rocket Science Mountain Bike Components brand from 1992-1994. The company had snippets of success along the way but in the end we just tried to do too much without enough financial backing and the doors closed on or about Christmas 2004. . The company owed numerous suppliers money and my personal finances were a mess. We really should have closed the doors a year earlier but when a company is your brain child, it is difficult if not impossible to let it just die without a fight.
For the longest time even thinking about the company depressed me. But as time has passed I can now look fondly on the past and recognize what I learned from the experience. And like I said above, I am so far removed from this past that discussing my experiences seems more like describing a dream than something I actually took part in. Further, I find that I am beginning to forget some of the details of the past as this first entrepreneurial experience slips in importance relative to other life experiences, such as those of my wife and twin girls.
So to memorialize this past life of mine these Rocket Science chronicles are born. In the coming months, I will describe my experiences related to product conception, product development, marketing, sales and business management in this multi-part blog series . Hopefully, those interested in inventing and development of their invention will find my experiences helpful and illuminating. These writings are somewhat rare in that they are about a business that did not succeed; whereas, most books focus on successful ventures. Ultimately, I hope you can gleam useful tips from how to run your business in terms of both what to do as well as what not what to do.
Stay tuned…
